Professor Performed Illegal STD Testing On Patients At Holiday Inn

Professor William Halford died last year of cancer, leaving many patients he experimented on with questions.

The State Journal-RegisterProfessor William Halford.

In the wake of the death of one of their professors, Southern Illinois University officials discovered some concerning information about the man in question, the late Professor William Halford.

School administrators discovered that the former professor, who passed away last summer from cancer, had been conducting illegal research on sexually transmitted diseases, specifically herpes, from within a Holiday Inn Express near the university’s campus.

The professor, who was a researcher with no medical license, had been injecting patients with a virus he had created himself and using his university-sanctioned email address to communicate with the patients about their symptoms. On four separate occasions in the summer and fall of 2013, Halford administered at least eight doses of his self-created virus, to create a herpes vaccine.

The unlicensed 2013 experiments were just the precursor to Halford’s 2016 experiments, which took place in his private home on St. Kitts Island in the West Indies. The 2016 experiments were a clinical trial to test the vaccine that he had created using information gathered from his 2013 experiments.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, Halford performed his experiments under no independent safety oversight, and in clear violation of U.S. law.

The Department of Health and Human Services is now looking to hold Southern Illinois University accountable for Halford’s actions, as he used a university email account to conduct his business, as well as the university’s lab and equipment to study the vaccines.

The university has denied any involvement in the trial, a claim which is corroborated in the email exchanges between Halford and his patients. In the emails, Halford stresses the need for silence and claims that it would be “suicide” for him or anyone else to reveal to the university how he conducted his research.

However, while the emails may exonerate the University, they deepen the misconduct allegations against Halford. Investigators have gleaned from the emails that Halford never procured any form of written consent from the FDA for the vaccines or trials, and may not have fully informed the patients of what they were undergoing.

Several of the patients have contacted SIU in regards to side effects they experienced after the doctors passing, claiming that the experimental vaccine worsened their symptoms. With the professor’s passing, the patients are looking for someone to answer. So far, the only answer from the university was a short letter, outlining their plans.